Strike at Red Sands
by TheMaster4444
Summary: Sequel to Battle of New York. Nearly 6 months have passed since the camps forced the magicians out of Brooklyn. The war remains in their favor. But Annabeth is distraught at the demigods' inability to find the missing Percy. So when a massive prison camp is found at Zia's old tomb, she proposes a daring raid. A plan that will push Carter too far and leave a hero fallen in the dust.
1. Chapter 1

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 1

Vengeance on White Soot

Annabeth's POV

I stood over the fallen bloodied corpse of a magician in a grey military uniform with oversized ears. Splinters of his destroyed staff were lying scattered across the malachite floor of the 18th Nome. The boy had put up quite a fight; he and those under his command had managed to survive under siege for a month and managed to repel all previous assaults. In the only other attack that was able to breach the primary defenses, he went one on one with Clarisse and killed her by smashing her under a storm of boulders. But even he could not stop me.

The decision to assault the House of Life's stronghold in St. Petersburg had been mine. There were sound strategic reasons for the battle, the palace was the magicians' second greatest fortress, but I had my own personal reasons for the siege. I had learned that most prisoners of the House were kept in the icy wastelands of Russia and the area had a history of underhand dealings and keeping secrets from the First Nome in Cairo. If anyone from the desert people had taken Percy they surely would have brought him here.

Unfortunately, my hunch proved wrong. The palace of Empress Alexandria was indeed a mighty fortress but Seaweed Brain was nowhere to be found. So I had wasted scores of lives for only one purpose that had been denied. I dropped my dagger through the dead man's skull to control some of my rage. Quickly recovering, I retrieved my knife and strode back out of the Hermitage into the freezing Russian December.

Of course, it was no longer recognizable as such. Every inch of the building had seen some kind of fighting and very few areas had survived. The marble pillars of the museum were shredded to rubble by bombardment after the magic shield had been breached. Even as I walked towards the descending trireme, flurries of snow began a different kind of barrage on the white ruins.

Reyna swiftly approached me when the _Ultor_ hit the ground, flanked by her every present golden guard dog _Aurem. Argentum, _her silver counterpart had been destroyed protecting his master from Sadie Kane, Carter Kane's sister and the new Chief Lector who warned him at Manhattan which prevented the complete obliteration of the Egyptian taskforce.

I had worked with the raven haired _praetor _extremely often over the course of the war and we had become surprisingly close. We had sympathized over love of strategy and understanding of leadership. She had saved my life more than once since her crowning moment during the capture of Brooklyn House and I had returned the favor equally as often.

"Well" she began, quite unsure how to respond to the fact that I was drenched in blood from head to toe. "That was a little-"

"Excessive" I supplied.

"Yeah" she confirmed. "Annabeth are you okay, I mean really? Because you are acting like a cornered cat, killing first asking questions never."

"I'm fine" I assured her sharply. "Percy has disappeared before and this time I know who has him. Besides, I'm not acting any more aggressive than usual."

"Really?" Reyna retorted incredulously. She pointed at something behind me. "Because a couple of months ago, you would never have so utterly destroyed a nation's beloved national monument."

I looked back at the ruin of the Hermitage. There wasn't a stone left standing. I returned my gaze to Reyna. "Okay so I've gone a little off the rails lately, but come on. You know there was no other way into the Nome."

"What about Paris?"

I tried to think of a comeback but she was right. Paris was a pyrrhic victory if there ever was one. Our forces cornered Amos Kane, then the Chief Lector, at a mansion on Pyramids Road (kind of a dumb place to hide if you ask me) and sent in over half the Twelfth Legion and four full cabins of campers on five _Argo IIIs_ to capture or kill him. But the House fought like dogs to save him. In the end we found Kane unconscious and took him prisoner but we lost two cohorts of legionnaires and all but ten campers. Two of the five triremes went down as well, with one ramming right into the Eiffel Tower. It was a real trick of the Mist to make that seem alright to mortals. But all of it happened because I didn't think when I was walking into an obvious trap.

"Fine you win" I conceded. "But what do you expect me to do. We're at war."

Reyna smiled a conceded smirk. She had been spending **way** too much time with Leo. "Jason wants us to get down to the desert as fast as we can once we've cleaned up here."

"Egypt? Why?" we had been plotting an offensive against the First Nome for months now but it wasn't supposed to take place for two more weeks.

Reyna just kept on smiling. "He has found it."

My heart soared a thousand feet in the air. If the it was what I thought it was, I might just have one more place to look for Percy after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 2

Plans… Oh Goodie

Jason's POV

If I wasn't planning to destroy an ancient magical organization that had been around since the dawn of human civilization, Alexandria might actually have been beautiful. The water of the harbor was so dark it was nearly black until the liquid reached the sea where it became the more soothing aquamarine. Light yellow brick buildings burst out of the ground beneath the flying trireme Leo and I were on, though not nearly as high as the skyscrapers I was used to. Of course, the war with the House of Life had taken me around the world but in most places there was some resemblance of American culture. Though, the McDonalds signs I glimpsed below testified that this city was tainted too.

Alexandria was a little farther from the House of Life's positions than I would have liked, but if demigods stayed too long in any other part of Egypt, we got sick to our stomachs. We were on enemy soil (or sand, whatever) and the land was fighting against us. Alexandria was the only place we could really make camp. I don't know why, it might have been that the city was founded by Alexander the Great, an unstoppable demigod, and it might have been because of the pita restaurant down the street. Leo did insist that the food had mystical properties. Personally, I thought it tasted like dirt.

Leo and I were standing on the deck of the _Fulminata _with Hazel and Frank while demigod crewmates bustled around the ship, sweeping, cleaning, and just generally preparing for battle. Off to the right were five other triremes, the two remaining vessels of Leo and my own squadron and Hazel and Frank's triad of warships. On the horizon, Annabeth and Reyna were approaching with enough speed to reach us in a few minutes. I don't know what the mortals thought we were; maybe a massive formation of birds.

Frank spoke first. "So what's the big announcement Jason? We should be mopping up resistance in North Korea right now not sipping iced tea in the sun. The attack on the First Nome isn't for another two weeks. Dakota needs that time to finish up in South America anyway. We can't take their capital with so few numbers, it's impossible."

"We aren't going after the First Nome" I assured him.

"Then why are we here?"

"Wait until Annabeth and Reyna get here. They'll want to hear this" I said.

About three minutes later, the _Ultor _pulled up alongside us and a gangplank dropped to connect our ships. Two familiar female demigods walked over to us, one in an orange t-shirt, another in purple. Leo smiled at them. "What took you so long?"

Reyna returned his grin. "Russian winds. There's some extreme turbulence up there in the north."

We all laughed at that. There were hugs all around (and a kiss between Leo and Reyna that we all pretended not to see) as everyone got caught up with new war stories. Even Annabeth was in a good mood which was rare enough to see on her face these days.

After the general greetings and all, we got down to business. The six of us went below deck, to where the dining room had been on the original _Argo II. _The walls were decorated with images of both Camp Jupiter since the ship was Roman made. In the center of the table was a video shield half a meter in diameter. We all took our seats around the oak table with our weapons at our sides.

"Alright Jason" Annabeth began. "We've all been patient. Now would you please tell us why in Zeus' name you threw off the entire war strategy and called us here?"

"This" I said reaching for the shield in the center. I manipulated the controls of the video device and the image of dry wood buildings surrounded by glowing barbed wire appeared on the bronze surface. Some buildings were somewhat rundown looking with holes and rotting planks. Others were pristine and new, standing outside the fence near a strange rectangular hole in the ground. In between these houses was a huge marble obelisk erected amongst the reaches of sand. Crimson sand to be exact, "behold" I beckoned. "The Place of Red Sands, also known as"-

"Al-Hamrah Makan Prison Camp" everyone else finished except for Leo, who had made the discovery with me.

"That's the largest prisoner of war holding facility the House has. How in the hell did you find it?" Annabeth inquired.

"To tell the truth" Leo admitted. "It was completely an accident. We were in charge of securing the beachhead for the invasion of Egypt so once we took Alexandria; we had a look around, both through the shield and by sending out scouts. This was of course how we found out about the unusual attrition of the country, but the sunlight scans revealed something of even more vital importance."

"We were looking around the Southern portion of the Nile" I picked up. "Searching for traps and escape tunnels just in case things went wrong. But a stretch of sand was shimmering strangely. Every time we looked straight at the sand there was nothing wrong, but when we glimpsed it out of the corner of our eye"-

"The camp appeared out of nowhere" Reyna guessed.

"Yeah" said Leo. "How did you know that?"

"Annabeth and I encountered the same kind of mist in Munich" she explained. "It's a variation of their invisibility spell, except it just diverts your attention instead of hiding from your sight. When the enchantment is spread thin over such a large area, demigods can obtain a slight foothold against the magic."

"We know that" I confessed. "We also managed to reconfigure the video shield's matrix a bit so it would ignore the spell. So far we have placed jammers around the flat so we can see the encampment in person. Unfortunately, the charm conjures a barrier that cannot be breached by anything less than an object going the speed of sound."

"Or just teleporting past entirely with a portal" Frank said. "Which would explain how they likely get in and out as well as the purpose of the obelisk. To knock that kind of an entrenchment down, we'd need a bombardment of massive proportions."

"We considered that" I admitted. "That was the reason we called you guys here. To breach those defenses we need your fleets' firepower."

"It won't work" Annabeth condemned. "The First Nome is right next door. With a portal inside they can get reinforcements in the blink of an eye. We'll be slaughtered if we try a frontal assault."

"So what do you suggest we do?" I asked.

"We need to send the majority of our forces to create a diversion, somewhere they can't afford to lose. While the Egyptians are distracted, we send a small strike squad inside the camp followed closely by an _Argo _ready to evacuate all the liberated."

"Great plan. But you forgot the part about the barrier nothing below the speed of sound can breach" Leo mocked.

Annabeth turned to Hazel, who had been silently watching the whole conversation. "Can he do it?" she asked.

Hazel nodded. "He'd curse you for doubting him."

I realized at once who they were talking about. And if I was right, this crazy plan might have a chance after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 3

Passion in the Night (Part One)

Jason's POV

After a packed day of planning and tactics, I was about ready to crash onto my bed and sleep until noon. But I had a tradition of sorts about what to do when I entered my room for the night. In the right back hand corner of every legion officer above the rank of centurion was a salt water mist fountain almost exactly like the one Percy has in the corner of the Poseidon Cabin. Or had since it had taken a fireball to the face during the Battle of New York six months ago. Regardless, the main purpose of the device was to allow instant communication between fleet officers across the globe. But there were no rules against using the rainbows for personal calls.

I flicked a _denarius _from my pocket into the multicolored fog. "_O' Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please except my offering." _I prayed almost robotically, having said the words at least a thousand times over the months. The next couple had a more invigorated spring in them. "Show me Piper, at Camp Half-Blood."

The light bended in the mist to form an almost solid image of a beautiful girl with a heavy bandage wrapped around her waist sleeping on a white hospital bed. Over her stood a short but stout man in a baseball cap and an orange camp consular t-shirt. He also happened to have goat legs and hooves.

"Coach" I shouted to the familiar form of the violent satyr. As predicted, the first thing he did was swing wildly with his cudgel at the sound of my voice. It took a few minutes before he realized where I was but by that time it was already too late for several potted plants, a coat rack, and Piper's bedside cabinet.

"Damn it kid" he swore at me. "Give a goat a little warning before you Iris message in like that."

"That's what I was doing" I pointed out.

"You were doing a bad job of it. I could have slaughtered half the room."

"You did."

"And don't you forget it. Now why are you calling in the middle of the day? You should still be on duty maggot."

"I'm in Egypt. There's a seven hour time difference between here and New York. It's ten where I am."

"Fine, but why did you call? Have you been driven back and need the Camp Guard to come overseas to smash some Egyptian skulls in?" he asked a little too eagerly.

"No coach" I told him. "The campaign is going just fine; in fact we're ahead of schedule. I just called to check up on my girlfriend."

"And she has been waiting for you" Piper flirted as she rose from her false sleep with as much grace as she could manage with a crushed stomach. "Coach, why don't you go talk to Grover about going on a patrol for the night" she said, her voice oozing with charmspeak.

Coach Hedge was powerless to disobey and left the infirmary with the door slammed shut. Piper turned her attention to me and gave me a warm smile that calmed my current worries. Ever since Piper had gotten blasted through the shoulder by some no name magician during the ill-fated diplomatic meeting that occurred prior to the Battle of New York, I'd yearned to be at her side. More than usual of course; I always wanted to be by her side. But I was a _praetor _of the Twelfth Legion and duty to the conflict kept me abroad. I contacted her through an Iris message every night but I still ached for more.

"Are you healing up alright?" I asked, not bothering to keep concern from my voice.

"Yeah" she responded. "The process is slow but it's coming along. I can stand up for nearly two minutes now."

"What about Chiron?" I inquired. The last time I had asked about the old horse, he was still in a coma, two months after Piper had woken from hers.

Piper's expression was grim. "He is still out cold. Grover has the best healers working on him but nothing they try works. Pretty soon they're going to try to contact Olympus for help but they are doing their best to stay out of the war as much as they can. Though every time we ask for help on the matter, the council just use his immortality as an excuse for not helping. 'He can't die; he'll wake up in time'. Sometimes I just want to smack them upside their annoyingly divine faces."

I put up a façade of a smile. "On the bright side, we're winning the war."

Piper turned her face into one of disappointment. "Jason you know how I feel about the war. Why can't we just sit down and talk with the Egyptians?"

"Did we sit down and have tea with the titans? Or Gaea?"

"The House of Life is different" she insisted. "They are humans. They can be reasoned with. They are not some repeating evil deity. You can't win this one by bashing their skulls in Jason. Not against them."

I scratched an itch at the base of my neck. When Piper got going she could be extremely intimidating and the Iris message's prevention of her charmspeak didn't really help in the matter. "Pipes" I began attentively. "Can we please move on to less contested topics?"

She considered for a moment and then relented that she wasn't going to make any more progress on the subject tonight. "Okay" she said sexy like as she leaned into the mirage image."What do you want to talk about?"

By night's end, I was out a hundred denarii and hadn't slept a wink. But I was more than rested.

Reyna's POV

I walked into my room with my chest plate still on over my t-shirt. I was about to begin untying the armor laces on the back when I felt a familiar presence in the corner of the room. "Just because you're my boyfriend Leo, doesn't mean you get to see me undress."

The endear Latino elf stepped out of the shadows. "How'd you know I was there?" he asked.

"Temperature. The room was at least seven degrees warmer than usual. Which means either the AC is on the frits or the fire aura of the son of Hephaestus."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"My apologies then, I meant no such disrespect. Now while you're in the room, can you get these armor laces undone" I taunted playfully, like I only did when we were alone.

He came over and obeyed my wishes, pausing slightly in his work at times to mutter a few curses about tight knots. His attitude improved quite a bit when I took off my armor and let my lips embrace his while he held me close. And let's just say that over the course of the night we both saw each other undress.

**Tada! The next Chapter will be shorter.**

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	4. Chapter 4

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 4

Foreshadow in the Night (Part Two)

Carter' POV

I was never tired anymore. Not since the war began. Adrenaline pumped through my body night and day whether I was in a life or death battle or just drinking a cup of coffee that I really didn't need. Sleep was an elusive prey and I often found myself sneaking out of bed to get some training in while the rest of the First Nome got to lie down for the night.

So there I was in the training gym (which looked exactly like Brooklyn House's had except it was four times as large and didn't have basketball court markings) and was having a jolly good time of it. Wave after wave of practice _shabti _dressed in some antique Greek armor left over from Alexander the Great's conquest rose from the Earth and zoomed in to attack me. I had chosen to go shirtless for the practice because I didn't like the cotton restricting my movements so I fought armor less and without my sword (events had proven that I needed to get better with hand magic and melee combat) against an endless army. Five minutes and various acrobatic magical fists later, the statues were all rubble.

"Nice" mocked a voice I had know all my life. I turned around to see Sadie standing behind me dressed in full magician linen and armed with her staff and wand. "You were able to slaughter a bunch of defenseless rocks."

"To think I used to worry that that throat of yours wouldn't recover from the pounding Frank Zhang gave you back in Brooklyn" I lamented. "Besides, the _shabti _had armor and sharpened spears. I felt perfectly justified blowing them to pieces."

"You know that demigods are a lot harder to kill then stone practice dummies" she pointed out. "So" she dropped her weapons into a ready stance, "let's see what you can do against someone competent."

"Your funeral" I taunted, drawing my _khopesh _from the Duat. Sadie was no pushover and I knew from previous experience that couldn't take her bladeless.

Rushing in to begin the duel, I formed a glowing form around my sword and swept across the stone arena floor. Sadie easily threw up a protective shield that bounced the strike across the room, leaving a long gash in the floor.

Recovering from the recoil, I threw up my combat avatar and leapt ten feet in the air. I lanced down and carved a circle through the line, narrowly missing Sadie as she dodged through my legs. Seeing opportunity, I chucked the curved sword like a boomerang which Sadie jumped to the side of but left a trench in the ground perpendicular to the original line. I was about to continue my assault when Sadie looked at the shapes I had created and yelled, "Stop!"

Knowing my sister wouldn't call for a pause that desperately if there wasn't anything serious, I lowered my battle armor and walked over to her. "What's wrong?" I asked, confused at her demand for a pause.

"Carter, did you have any particular formation in mine when you carved those shapes?" she inquired, her voice strangely shaky.

"No, I just attacked. Why do you ask… oh." I realized that the shape I had created was one of two spears crossed over a shield (or as Sadie once said it looked like, a bug). I had carved the mark Neith, the goddess of hunting. She was also a paranoid conspiracy theorist who placed a curse on Sadie back when were fighting Apophis . Something about one day being tricked by her prey but I had hoped since we saved the world that the goddess would let the whole matter go. Obviously, I was wrong.

"Don't worry about it sis" I comforted her.

"Don't worry about the nuts in the head hunting goddess who placed a curse on me and thinks Jelly Babies are a kind of animal? Thanks Carter, I feel so much better" she mocked.

I didn't know what else to say. We were losing ground to the demigods every day and they weren't slowing down. Amos was rotting in some prison camp somewhere and I was a hyperactive super soldier who couldn't seem to win a battle. Personally, I just couldn't put together how our situation could get any worse.

Crap, I just said that didn't I?

Well, since nothing blew up immediately, the universe couldn't have it in for me that much. "Best of three?" I challenged Sadie. My sister raised her staff and sent me into the wall.

Annabeth POV's

Why is it, that when Percy is not around, I'm the one who gets hammered with psychic dreams?

When I plopped down into my bed after the strategy session (which didn't invigorate me as much as they used to) I was immediately swept away in a riptide of scarlet sands. I was suddenly in the sky above Al-Hamrah Makan, staring down at suffering prisoners and bored guards. Everywhere I looked I saw a familiar face. Travis Stroll was looking unnaturally depressed as he played solitaire with himself using scraps of untendered papyrus as cards. Even as a prisoner of war, I had imagined the son of Hermes to at least be trying to escape. Of course, his twin brother Connor had always been alive to make the shenanigans fun. But Conner's pegasus had been shot down when he was doing reconnaissance over the Australia Nome. Travis had slipped up the next day and was captured.

Drew was wallowing in her own misery as a hieroglyph for silence floated around her head. Despite my hatred of the Egyptians, I had to give them props for putting Drew exactly where she belonged. I wondered if the whole thing had been Sadie's idea. I had heard that the two of them had been enemies at high school.

But my spirit's path led away from the suffering half-bloods and towards the guard houses. I saw many people I hated like Julian, the arrogant jock that butchered half a phalanx at a clash in Copenhagen, and Felix, who I possessed a grudging admiration for due to his ingenuity with traps and tricks. I could not however discern his obsession with penguins.

I flew past the magicians without even drawing a glance (a perk of not actually being there). Slowly I floated down to a rectangular hole in the ground, as if drawn by an alluring presence. A familiar presence, screaming something, but the sound was too garbled for me to make out, though it became clearer the closer I got.

I moved within an inch of the entrance and what I heard stopped my heart. "_Annabeth"_ shrieked a pained and muffled voice. I rushed into the stairwell but as soon as I touched the darkness, a shockwave ran through my body, jolting me back to reality as I sat bolt upright.

As I panted in the darkness of my room, I was both elated and terrified by a single thought. _I know where Percy is._

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	5. Chapter 5

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 5

On Your Marks

Annabeth's POV

I did not barf during the ride there. That is more than I could say for Frank. Even in the inertia resistant chariot I had constructed so that people could be driven by Arion without being disoriented, he still tossed his lunch over the side. Hazel of course was laughing the whole trip, sitting on top of her precious steed's light brown back.

Sorry, you are probably confused. The plan that the fleet commanders agreed upon the night before was quite simple in theory. Jason and Leo would take the majority of our forces and launch a diversionary assault in a very specific place. In the meantime, Hazel, Frank, and I would hook the super fast immortal horse Arion (who Hazel could conveniently call on at any time) up to a chariot and have Hazel drive Frank and I down the Nile at supersonic speed to liberate the Place of Red Sands, with Reyna flying behind us in the _Ultor _to extract the freed demigods once we brought down the camp's barrier. Easy to do, if you disregarded the heavily armed garrison of magicians ready to vaporize us as soon as we arrived.

But at the moment we were rushing down the banks of the Nile as we had been for about an hour, easily topping the speed of sound. The sand turned to glass as Arion trampled over the landscape. We would arrive at Al-Hamrah Makan soon and I was doing a last minute check on all my equipment. Armor: strapped and tight. Dagger: sharp and waiting. Mirror shield: polished and sealed as a band of metal around my wrist. I almost felt sorry for whatever magician got between me and Percy.

Frank checked and rechecked his quiver and bow. Maybe it was a side effect of his whole son of Mars ability, but Frank got battlefield jitters worse than most people. He hid them well most of the time but I had spent years learning how to study people. I knew a nervous person when I saw one.

Hazel was the exact opposite. When she was on horseback, she lived in the moment. The struggles and strives of the War of the West were from the life of another person. Right now, she was laughing with glee as she blazed down the desert sand with her friends. Who cares if they blasting toward their possible death? They were rocketing past the speed of sound. I really wish I could do that but whenever I try to, all I can think is; _inertia is going to take over. We are going to go splat when we stop._

The edge of the prison camp appeared on the horizon, the strange aura shimmering the air around the encampment, trying to convince our eyes to look away. Luckily, Leo had taught us the way to divert the field's affects. We just needed to focus on one specific thing that was precious to us at the location. _Percy counts, _I thought eagerly.

Hazel turned back to us for a moment. She was such a skilled equestrian that she did not need to keep her eyes on where she was going. "Do you think Jason and Leo have begun the diversion yet?" she yelled back.

"If they haven't, I'll tear their skulls out when we get back" I joked. But on the inside, I had no doubt that the House were dealing with a nasty little surprise right about now.

Carter's POV

The war meeting was held in the Hall of Ages, flanked by the luminescent violet curtains. I sat on the throne of Egypt while the Crook and Flail rested at my sides. I had so far refused to use the all powerful tools in the war but as our situation grew direr; my willpower was slowly eroded until only a single soldier of strength stood against the onslaught of necessity. But for now, I stuck to my trusty _khopesh _in battle.

Sadie sat elegantly with her legs under her below me on the Chief Lector's dais. I had my doubts whether my sister could hold up the responsibility of the position after Amos was captured, but her being the most powerful remaining magician, I didn't have much of a choice. I was pleasantly surprised when she excelled tremendously at the duties. Though I was tempted to fire her when she gave the Nome library a makeover.

Walt and Zia stood in front of us debating if we should retake the Eighteenth Nome in Russia or fortify our position here in the First Nome. Zia had just reached a particularly interesting point about supply lines (No, I was not just staring at her face) when Sadie raised her head alert. "We're under attack" she warned.

"How do you know?" Zia asked, caught off guard that Sadie would say something so abrupt in the middle of her report.

"I enchanted the walls to smell like chocolate if we were under attack and the threat level is demonstrated by the flavor." she explained. "Right now we're smelling mint which means there are seven, maybe eight _Argos _descending on us right now."

I didn't want to rely on Sadie's unusual though very intoxicating early warning system but I had been hit by enough surprise attacks that I had learned not to take chances. I slashed at the glowing wall of the hall of ages and a screen appeared depicting the surrounding desert. There were indeed eight flying triremes launching an assault on the Great Sphinx with emerald bolts of fire. The endgame had finally arrived, but why was the demigod force so small?

Walt was astonished. I'll get our defenses up immediately Carter. This won't be a repeat of Brooklyn" he swore.

"Wait" Sadie advised. It seemed that she had caught the same detail that I had. "The lead ship; its bow is a gold eagle. That means that it is the _Fulminata_, Jason Grace's flagship. He is way too smart to think that he can take the First Nome with only eight ships."

"You're right" Zia realized. "And why eight warships? Isn't the full muster of a half-blood battle squadron three? If there are three squads involved in this attack, where is the last ship?"

"More specifically" I added. "Where is the _Ultor?_ Two of those ships are from Annabeth and Reyna's fleet but their flagship is missing from the fray. Why? Those two battle mongers wouldn't miss out on a battle this big unless they were doing something important, unless it was something very secret and import- oh." The answer smacked me in the face.

What was the one objective that could possibly be more important than the First Nome? Where was it located specifically so that any assault could be easily repelled with reinforcements from the headquarters of the House? Why would two of the camps most brilliant warriors go if a distraction was possible to keep reinforcements away?

A messenger suddenly ran into the room. "Lord Pharaoh" he panted. "Captain Julian has reported that Al-Hamrah Makan is under attack. He humbly asks for your wish on the matter."

I doubted Julian could do anything humbly but I had my decision and I knew what to do. "Inform the Captain to have all his forces evacuated via portal to the First Nome then prepare a portal for the Chief Lector and I to travel back there through.

"Yes my liege" obeyed the messenger, quickly sprinting off to follow my demands.

I spun on my heels back to the throne.

"Carter?" Sadie asked warily.

I didn't respond. The last soldier of willpower had been slain and my rage was imminent. These pitiful demigods wanted to play hard ball, fine by me. But they were kidding themselves if they thought I wasn't going to hit back harder.

I took the Crook and Flail from where I had left them on the throne. The reckoning was coming. "Walt, Zia, you two deal with the diversion here. Sadie, with me. It's time to stop holding back."

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	6. Chapter 6

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 6

Explosions and Mythomagic, What Could Go Wrong?

Felix's POV

For the record, I totally demolished Julian in Mythomagic. My Ice Titan crushed his pathetic Axelord Rampager into tiny ice cubes. But as I was about to cast the final spell of Arctic Conquest, a Greek fire arrow exploded under the table we were playing on in a burst of emerald flames. "No fair!" I screamed. "I was about to win!"

Julian looked a lot more pleased with the demigods' opportune strike. "Too bad, now we will never know who would have won" he sarcastically apologized, bringing his hands up in a 'what can you do' shrug.

"You blasted idiot! You know I was going to win" I yelled at him while we armed ourselves from the Duat.

"Sorry, I can't hear you. Demigods attacking the camp and all that. You hold them off; I'll get a distress call to the First Nome. Okay? Great! Good luck!" He was dashing for the communications cabin before he was halfway done. Sighing, I rushed to the prison fences.

Honestly, I hated Al-Hamrah Makan. There weren't any mosquitoes in the desert like most warm places (they were smart and stayed away) but something about the place ate away at me, gripping my soul and making it harder to perform magic. Not by much, but there was defiantly more of a strain on my body.

I know I should be grateful to Carter for just putting Julian and me here. With all the screw ups we had caused, every magician that hadn't trained at Brooklyn House was screaming for us to get sent to the three hundred and sixtieth Nome in Antarctica. The fiasco in Paris that got Amos captured, that was us. Carter protected us as much as he could and shipped us off to a dull and boring garrison duty a few hundred miles down the Nile where he could keep an eye on us. Personally, I wish he had sent us to Antarctica; at least there are penguins there.

The prison yard was in full blown riot. Hazel (I knew it was her by the light speed horse), Frank (I knew it was him because of the shape shifting), and Annabeth (I laughed so hard after she whooped Carter on Long Island) had somehow penetrated the camp's defensive barrier. The containment hieroglyphs had dissipated from the demigod assault. Now the unarmed half-bloods were overcoming the garrison magicians by sheer strength of numbers.

Overall, things could have been worse. Oh who am I kidding, things couldn't be worse, the prison break would double the camps' numbers, meaning in addition to being badly outgunned, we would be outnumbered in the war. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to stay alive against the tide of freed prisoners. Ice did not work very well in 100 degree weather.

I had just frozen some random demigod when I noticed Annabeth sneaking away from the main skirmish. While I didn't want to leave the other magicians to fend for themselves, this was a golden opportunity to remove one of the demigods' greatest leaders. I blasted an attacker away from me and ran toward the deadly blond. She was for making a run for Zia's old tomb for some reason. When she jumped into the black abyss, I found that I rebounded from the opening. I tried entering again but I still could not and Annabeth was out of range of my offensive magic.

_If I can't kill her, I'll trap her, at least for a bit._ "_Se-kebeb" _I shouted. A sheet of ice began to creep over the opening of the tomb until it had completely covered the hole. I grinned in satisfaction and turned to return to the losing battle. However, Julian had reappeared from the cabin and rushed over to me.

"Orders from Carter" he screamed. "We are to evac to the First Nome immediately!"

"He wants us to **abandon **Al-Hamrah Makan?" I responded incredulously. "Why isn't he sending reinforcements?"

"He is. But he wants us out of here before they get here" Julian explained.

"Alright" I relented. "Let's go get everyone else."

Julian turned to the fighting. His eyes widened in shock and sadness. I didn't need to ask if I really needed to grab the others.

We raced to the obelisk. If we were lucky, the demigods we still reveling in their apparent victory. Of course, we also needed to get a very auspicious moment when we fired up the portal. In my head I silently prayed to my still undiscovered ice god, "Please be some equinox or whatever. Please be some equinox or whatever."

Apparently, it was some equinox because the portal of sand materialized in front of us. I thought we had finally caught a break when I heard a voice I recognized as Hazel shout from behind us, "Two more, over there."

I turned around as fast as I could and caught Hazel (who was now off her horse) and Frank (who had returned to human form) bolting over to kill us. The freed demigods were assembling a bit further away under a descending _Argo III_ that was still 15,000 feet up. "Felix let's go" demanded Julian as he grabbed from behind and drove me through the portal. We came out in the transport room of a strangely sweet smelling First Nome and didn't have time to blink before two birds, a kite and a falcon, flew past us back to Red Sands. I quickly realized why Carter had wanted us out of danger from the combat.

_I hope you know what you are doing teach._

Annabeth's POV

I barely noticed when the ice formed over the pit's entrance. I just descended the stairwell. Percy was near, I could feel it.

The stairs went on for a very long time but that was understandable since they didn't have elevators in Ancient Egypt. When they finally ended, I came out in a stone chamber about ten meters square. And my heart stopped when I saw the floor rug.

Percy was lying perfectly still on the floor, his eyes closed as if in restful sleep. He looked exactly the same as he had the day he had disappeared. Well, sort of. His cloths were the same, an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and blue shorts. His arm still bore the purple SPQR tattoo that he had acquired during his week at Camp Jupiter while the necklace of clay beads from his years at Camp Half-Blood remained tethered around his neck.

But his body looked ridiculous. He had grown an inch just lying in the cavern for six months making him Jason's equal in height. His skin was more natural as if it was tailor made for him without a bump or blemish in sight. He was muscular to the very edge of natural possibility. He looked incredible, even more than before. But it was the same as when I had gotten the Circe makeover nearly six years ago. It just wasn't Percy. In fact, it was almost as if someone was making a house absolutely perfect before they moved in.

Well I'd have to fix that later. Even with a surprisingly charming voice whispering in my head to leave him, I picked Percy up and flung him over his shoulder (Camp search and rescue training had made sure I was strong enough for this.) Without a second thought, I expelled the whispers of doubt from the back of my mind and made my way for the entrance. I was approaching the sheet of ice over the opening when suddenly; a shockwave like the master bolt blew through the tomb, shattering the ice barrier which gave us enough protection to survive the torrent of crimson sand that poured in afterward. I was able to rise despite my many new cut and trudged out of the tomb to a horrific scene.

"Oh, Gods!"

Villain's POV

No, no, no, this could not be happening. I only needed a few more seconds to perform the spell. But the blond chick found the tomb too soon. I made myself and my book invisible to avoid discovery but she took my new body. I could still do the spell later but it would be easier to do it now. Of course, when I came up behind the blond the stupid blast hit and sent me flying into the wall for a blow that would have killed me if I wasn't already dead. Unfortunately, that meant I was unconscious for what happened next.

**Yeah finally done!**

**Sorry this took so long, school sent loads of homework.**

**Also, hold on to your seats, Percy's return is 1 or 2 chapters away.**

**REVIEW!**


	7. Chapter 7

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 7

Down in Flames

Frank's POV

And everything was going so well too. Hazel, Annabeth, and I burst into the Egyptian camp like a rocket. We freed half the captives in seconds while the magicians were powerless to oppose us. Annabeth went off into that strange hole by the cabins but I didn't think much of it. Even when ice rolled over the entrance we were in the desert so it couldn't take too long to melt. When every magician was dead, the freed POWs gathered right outside the former barrier (which had collapsed when we had penetrated it) and the _Ultor _began its descent. We were imperial golden.

Then Hazel heard the distinctive sound of a portal opening. We knew there was only one place in the camp that could sustain a portal and whipped around to the obelisk. There we saw Felix and Julian (familiarly annoying figures). Felix caught a look at us but Julian pulled him into the vortex of sand. Strangely, a pair of birds blew through the doorway the moment the numbskulls left. The larger beast looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen it before.

When I did, the whole world exploded.

"It's the Kanes" I shouted as I finally recognized Sadie's kite form from the Battle of New York. At that moment, Sadie broke off from her brother, reverted to human form, and fired off a massive glowing _ankh _barrier that sent Hazel and I flying back into the cabins.

"_N'dah" _Sadie screamed as a dome of cyan protective energy enveloped her. We got up to challenge her defense but she just waged her finger as we were naughty children. "Run and hide kiddies, the show is about to start."

I was confused about what she was talking about when I looked up to see that the falcon that was really Carter was still climbing in altitude. With a jolt, I realized what he was about to do and was horrified that there was nothing I could do to stop him. Not with Sadie standing here ready to pounce like a tiger.

Knowing that there was one person I could still save, I morphed into an elephant and encircled Hazel. Then I braced myself for what would probably hurt like a billion bee stings.

Reyna's POV

Everything was going according to plan. We were beginning our final approach on Al-Hamrah Makan. I had just received an Iris message from Jason that the diversion at the First Nome was going well. From the looks of things on the ground, Annabeth's strike team had freed the entire prison camp. The plan appeared to be a flawless success.

I allowed myself a feeling of satisfaction knowing that with the additional numbers the freed POW would supply, the war would be won with the month. Without warning, a bird (was that a falcon? Since when are there falcons in the damn desert) flew right past me on the boarding deck. Whatever kind it was, Aurum was going crazy, barking like mad as the avian flew higher into the sky. I trusted that my dog knew what he was talking about (he was even more alert since the destruction of his twin) I also couldn't do anything about it. The bird was too small a target for the ballistae to hit and the Gatling crossbows couldn't shoot straight up. Every archer that would normally be on the trireme had been transferred to the _Fulminata _for the distraction and Frank was way too far out of range below to do anything about the bird.

Suddenly, when the falcon was about twenty five feet above the ship, it morphed into the all too frightening and familiar figure of Carter Kane enveloped in his fifteen foot tall hawk headed battle avatar. But where his chosen weapon would normally be his _khopesh, _he now held a hooked shepherd staff like rod in one hand and a stick with a trio of spiked chains in the other. A war flail, if I remembered correctly from weapons training.

The combat magician raised both weapons into the air together and then falling with gravity, he smashed the giant holographic forms of the crook and flail into the hull of the _Ultor _as flames cascaded out from the point of impact. The upper sails were blazed in the unimaginable inferno. The wooden planks were shredded by force and then disintegrated. Crewmembers were not caught in the torrent of flames but they did receive incredible burns as their armor was practically fused to their flesh.

And me. I was sent flying over the side of the ship, flailing into the infinite sky as I saw Aurum melt into a small rain of molten gold. Memories flashed through my mind. My life as an attendant to Circe with Hylla. Fending for myself as a prisoner of Blackbeard. The tearing of my heart as my sister and I parted ways on the mainland. My induction into the Legion. My quests and adventures with Jason. The trials I faced during the Giant War on the home front, keeping Octavian from destroying Camp Half-Blood. Falling for Leo. The eruption of war and fighting battles side by side with Annabeth.

Strange how I had faced and conquered more perils in seventeen years than most mortals did in a lifetime. But that was life as a demigod for you, never a dull moment.

I hit the ground hard, harder than I thought I would. My spine disconnected from my skull and I was dead. The last image I ever saw was Leo's gorgeous grinning face and burning wreckage descending from the sky.

Annabeth's POV

When I emerged from the tomb, a nightmare unfolded around me. Things had completely swapped from when I had gone into the abyss. Hazel was kneeling a few feet to my right with a body that looked like a meat patty braced over her legs. Her _spatha _was drawn over the body in a protective form. About ten yards in front of her, Sadie Kane was exiting a magical protective dome while even farther back Carter strode out of a cradle of fire and death with a hooked staff and war flail in his hands. The other demigods were nowhere to be seen.

I rushed over to Hazel with Percy's body straddled over my back. When I got over to her, I saw that the hamburger body was Frank. There were hundreds of tiny cuts and scratches all over his body leaking blood like a bent pipe. His jaw looked dislocated and he had two black eyes.

"What happened?" I asked Hazel feverishly.

"Carter destroyed the _Ultor_" Hazel breathed out, obviously barely able to speak. "Everything fell, collapsing on the other demigods. Any that survived were killed by Carter's sandstorm shockwave when he hit the desert floor. I only survived Frank transformed into an elephant and shielded me. He is nearly dead but his elephant hide kept him from taking enough damage to die instantly." She looked up at me. "Oh, you found Percy."

"Yeah" I responded while trying to think of a way out. Carter and Sadie were powerful. There was no way we could beat them while protecting Percy and Frank at the same time. We needed to separate the magicians.

"Call Arion" I ordered Hazel. "Get Percy and Frank back to Alexandria as fast as you can. One of them should go after you. I should be able to beat whoever remains." I thought the last part was true. I had taken Carter down on Long Island and faced Sadie a couple of times over the course of the war. Our mission had ended in worse than failure and this was our best shot of keeping our lives.

Hazel nodded to me and whistled. Arion appeared at her side in the blink of an eye with his golden chariot in tow. We loaded the two unconscious boys into the back and then Hazel took the reins. She stared at me for a long moment and finished with "Good Luck." With that she departed but Sadie managed to fire off some kind of spell because Arion only galloped at the speed of a regular horse.

My plan worked perfectly in the first respect. Sadie morphed into a kite and gave chase to Hazel and the boys along the banks of the Nile. I turned to Carter as he smiled at the inevitably approaching duel. I drew my knife, grabbed my baseball cap from my belt and prepared my mirror shield. Carter called forth his giant falcon combat avatar. "Come on Annabeth" he taunted me. "This is a rematch I've been waiting for."

**Wow, two chapters in one day, haven't done that in a while.**

**So, I have decided to give you guys a reason to review instead of the usual begging.**

**I have not decided whether to have Carter and Annabeth's fight next or Sadie's chase of Hazel and the boys next.**

**So in your reviews, please tell me what you want to see next and whatever one gets more votes will be the next chapter. So please review.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay guys, the vote was a tie so I'm just going to write the easier one.**

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 8

Hunt on the Nile

Sadie's POV

I cannot tell how good it felt to be chasing down that eagle, elephant, dragon shape shifter Frank. He probably hadn't died from Carter's little over dramatic tantrum (a whole trireme in one shot! Why has he never done that before?) But I could remedy that when I caught up to the chariot. My slowing spell had worked perfectly so the admittedly majestic horse couldn't go the supersonic again but it was still a horse. Of course, I was a kite. And there was no way a horse could outrun a giant bird. I closed the distance as we zoomed along the banks of the Nile as crocodile spectators wondered what the silly mammals were doing.

Rushing along the desert with the wind blasting across my beak made me feel like a thousand American dollars. I had been feeling slightly on edge since Carter carved Neith's bug symbol into the training room floor. Hey, even when you never go hunting prey, being threatened by a conspiracy theorist goddess can be traumatizing. But Carter's ridiculous run and improvise scheme worked perfectly, so now I was on fire and ready to pound some demigods.

The chase went on for about ten minutes because apparently even with my spell the bloody horse was fast. The mangy beast might even have escaped me if we had not come to an obnoxiously intruding bend in the Nile that formed a barrier in front of the land creatures. When the Hazel tried to maneuver around the water, I changed back into a human and held out my staff. "_A'max_" I cried, unleashing a stream of flames from my staff. The inferno lanced out at Hazel and her horse forcing the female demigod to jump from her steed and roll toward me across the sand. She rose in a combat stance with her _spatha _drawn and ready. The horse had not be lucky enough to avoid my fire blast and his fur was now alit as he raged around, struggling so hard to douse the blaze that Frank and the dark haired boy fell out of the chariot.

My attention however was centered on the armored girl in front of me. I had never personally fought Hazel but I had read enough field reports to know that her powers were focused on geokinesis, (Carter insists I use complicated words like that. Of course he's the only one who knew what it meant) the manipulation of gems and earth. Fortunately for me, the desert lacked both.

Hazel raised her long blade and charged at me in a zigzag pattern. _Clever,_ I admired silently. By moving in such an unpredictable fashion, the little demigod would be difficult to target and if she could get in close this might even be a fair fight. But even the best laid plans of demigods are no match for the absolute power of Sadie Kane.

I tapped my staff to the desert floor to execute a little trick Alyssa showed me once. Expanding out from me in a massive circle, the sand took on a state more closely resembling mud, brown and thick. Hazel's foot caught itself in the quicksand's grip and the young girl fell to the ground, her sword slipping from her grasp and sinking beneath the thick barrier of earth.

I plucked a ball of twine from my magician's bag in the Duat. "_Tas" _I commanded as the thread leapt from my hand and tied up the half of Hazel that was still above ground. After undoing my quicksand spell, I walked over to my new captive and squatted in front of her face. "Well that was easy" I gloated.

"Go to hell" was all I got out of the trapped demigod.

Shrugging at the rude girl, I stood up and trotted over to bind her friends who were lying unconscious on the ground while the horse had run into the Nile to put out the fire on him. Seeing Frank mangled and broken was admittedly pleasing to my vindictive soul. After what he did to me at Brooklyn House, I was sorry I had to take him prisoner. The other boy was maybe seventeen or eighteen, muscular, wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt that was really dusty and very pale skin. Which was strange since when I had seen Annabeth lug him out of Zia's old tomb (no clue why they were in there) his flesh was finely tanned and really quite gorgeous. Now his skin was as dry as a bone and he looked to be dying of thirst.

Hazel managed to hop her body around so that she could see where I was. Her eyes widened at the sight of her dying friend. "He needs water" she screamed at me. "Help him, for the sake of the gods, give him some damn water!"

"Why should I help him?" I asked, intolerantly. "He is a demigod. You have killed scores of my friends, why should I save one of yours?"

"Because he is also human" Hazel shouted at me. "An honorable death in battle maybe, but could you live with a cold blooded murder on your conscience?"

That took me down a notch. If I left him to die, I would be no better than Set, or Vladimir Menshikov. Just another coward of chaos. But why was Hazel trying so hard to save this man instead of Frank, her boyfriend. "Who is he?" I demanded.

"The demigod you kept in the tomb" she responded like it was obvious. Then again, it was.

Knowing I wasn't going to get a better answer than that, I squatted down again and placed the black haired boy's head on my lap. "_Maw" _I muttered and an orb of clear fresh water appearing my hands, already dropping into the boy's mouth. I thought that would be it, but the image of Neith's grinning face suddenly passed before my eyes and terror griped my soul. My curse had finally been invoked. Hazel had tricked me by playing on my emotions and now I would pay the price.

As soon as a drop of water hit the man's skin, his body was restored to the luster I had seen previously. His eyelids shot open to reveal blank marble slates for less than a second only to be replaced by sea green eyes. I wondered frightfully just what had occurred when a moment later I was blown ten meters back by a hurricane force wind.

When I returned to my feet, I was faced with a very angry demigod.

Percy's POV

How I went from the bank of the East River to blackout to the middle of a desert with Hazel, Frank, and a girl I did not recognize, I did not know. However, I did know that Frank looked like hamburger meat and Hazel was tied up in yarn while the other girl had a nasty looking stick in her hands. Meaning she probably attacked my friends which is not a smart thing to do. Because if they don't beat you to a pulp, I will. I had also realized that listening to the voice in my head had probably been a bad idea. But since that's not relative to the moment, let's jump back to the present.

We were right next to a very large river, so I called water from the reservoir to strike the girl. What I got was a giant serpent made of water lancing out at her with open fangs. The blond demon barely managed to dodge the monster.

I was both exhilarated and terrified by my new power. I called up my battle hurricane and strangely the feat did not exhaust me at all. My body drew in moisture from the surrounding air to add to the cyclone's destructive force. When I looked at my foe, I saw that she was covering her face with her arms, desperately trying to avoid being sucked into my storm. She also looked, shorter? I stared down at my feet and saw that I was hovering about a foot above the ground, the sand swirling away from under me in some kind of reverse whirlpool, my feet standing on a small typhoon. I was in overdrive, a whole new level from anywhere I had been before.

But it didn't feel right. My soul felt like it was holding on to my body by a thread, almost as if it had been pushed aside to make room for something else. Like an _eidolon _was trying to shove me off a cliff. My new destructive abilities were just as unsettling. They were as if my old powers were on steroids.

My own internal issues did not matter at the moment however. Whatever had happened to me during the time I blacked out was insignificant if I did not help my friends now. And the girl was getting over her shock. She pointed her staff at me and said something like madi or something; it was difficult to hear over my hurricane.

A strange golden symbol flashed momentarily in front of her stick before shattering into glowing shards of nothing. Her eyes flew up in alarm so I guessed that that was not supposed to happen. She turned around after the picture was destroyed and morphed into a… uh, a very large bird and flew off.

I stopped my storm and settled back to the ground. The adrenaline rush should not have risen during that fight, if it could be called one but my body was still functioning better than anything I ever imagined. Faster than I ever ran before, I was at Hazel's side and slashed open her binds. She pulled me into a death hug immediately.

"You're alive" she whispered in my ear. She pulled away and just stared at me. "Six months Percy, six whole months you were captured."

"Wait, what" I stammered. "Captured? Six months? The last thing I remember was walking into a wall of sand and falling unconscious."

"So they've had you drugged for the time" Hazel explained to me, though I think she was trying to convince herself as well. "Right now, we need to calm Arion and get back to base so that Frank can get some medical attention and we can send help for Annabeth."

"Annabeth is in trouble?" I asked feverishly. My doubts immediately fell away about my absence. If these people hurt Annabeth, I would rip them into a thousand pieces and sent those scraps to Tartarus for the hellhounds to chew.

Hazel pointed down the river. "A few miles that way" she said. "She is dueling their leader, Carter. But Percy, don't do anything"-

I was on my feet and dashing to the water before she finished the sentence. I dived into the river with the grace of a dolphin and sped away to Annabeth's aid like a torpedo.


	9. Chapter 9

**Annabeth vs. Carter, place your bets!**

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 9

Rematch

Annabeth's POV

Okay, he was eager. Carter was still marching towards me though for some reason he was doing it ridiculously slow. I took the opportunity to take stock of the situation. Carter had his fifteen foot tall hawk god battle avatar but instead of his usual _khopesh, _the pharaoh was using his ceremonial tools, a Sheppard's crook and a war flail (I studied up on Egyptian mythology right after the war began) which apparently allowed him to take down a flying warship single- handed. Meanwhile, I had a celestial bronze knife with no special powers, a magic invisibility baseball cap that Carter could see through because of some stupid falcon vision, a mirror shield that reflected magic up to a certain strength, and a belt full of tricks that I wasn't sure would help me. So essentially, I was once again facing down death at impossible odds against an opponent who was my complete superior in pure force. Brain, don't fail me now.

Carter was still several yards away when he suddenly swiped at the air with his crook. An invisible force snagged me by the side and flung me into the crimson sands. Before I realized what was happening, the force smacked me down to the desert floor as my mouth sputtered out grains of scarlet and drops of rose. I was barely able to roll onto my back.

The giant glowing falcon warrior moved over me, blocking the sun from view. He raised his holographic crook above his head. "You know Annabeth" he gloated. "I really expected a better fight from you." The weapon came down, bearing to crush my skull.

Thinking fast, I pulled my mirror shield over my head. The crook caused a sonic blast to emanate out from the point of impact, scattering away sand and placing us in a bowl shaped pit, though the kinetic force of the assault was still turned back on Carter, sending the pharaoh flying backwards into the side of the depression. I rose to my feet, storing away the slim crack that appeared on the surface of my shield for later. Turning to Carter, I remarked "You'll wish it were that easy", in response to his earlier taunt. With that, I placed my Yankee's hat on my head and disappeared.

I quickly closed the gap between myself and bird brain as Carter rose and readied his weapons. "I thought you children of Athena were supposed to be smart. You should remember that your parlor tricks don't work on me" he shouted, his eyes glowing a faint gold. His head dashed to face me and I knew my cap was useless. Or would have been a few months ago.

Snatching a small blue packet from my belt, I extracted an egg shaped capsule filled with a fine blue powder. "Catch!" I yelled, as I threw the item like a baseball (ironic, seeing what I had on). The capsule struck the combat avatar's eyes and burst open, spraying the mass of navy grains everywhere. As soon as one touched the magical holo warrior, Carter's actual eyes returned to their normal shade.

His arms flew to his pupils, rubbing them constantly, trying to remove the dust. "What the hell?" he cursed.

"Don't bother" I advised him. "That was magic dampening dust. A child of Hecate named Alabaster invented it a little while back. I've been carrying a mild quality batch around with me just for you. The powder absorbs into you magical aura affecting all mysticism you do for the next few hours. Unfortunately, it can't bring down the big stuff like your combat avatar. But your falcon vision is offline, meaning I can do this!"

I darted up to the giant warrior and plunged my knife into his glowing knee. Carter's physical body in the avatar's center reeled back in pain before slamming down a blazing war flail right in front of where the wound was made. Fortunately, I was already gone, leaping invisibly to stab other areas of his body.

When he seemed to have been sufficiently weakened, I pulled out another little devil from my belt to finish the job. The device looked like a regular hand grenade, you know, the kind you see in war movies, but this powerhouse was filled with Greek fire. If it hit anything, no living creature could survive the explosion, not even Carter.

I climbed out of the pit so I would not be hit by the blast and maneuvered behind Carter. Strange, he seemed to be concentrating on something, possibly trying to overcome the dampening powder. Fine by me, until it wore in a few hours, that item's effect would stay not matter what. But hey, if Carter's back was turned, he wouldn't see the grenade when it left the range of my invisibility hat. "So long birdbrain" I muttered under my breath as I sent the olive ovoid barreling at the golden giant.

Suddenly, as if he could see the projectile's flight path in the air, Carter performed a colossal back flip out of the pit just as the grenade went up in a pillar of luminescent emerald fire. The young pharaoh landed no worse for wear closer to the river bank. My only thought, _why won't he just die? _

Carter turned around as I moved closer for another strike. "You know I'm impressed Annabeth" he admitted. "You almost had me there. But at the House of Life, we have exercises to increase the potency of certain senses. Sadly, sight is not among them, but hearing your little bomb coming towards me was handy enough." He raised the flail into a more combat useable position but worry did not beseech me. After all, he couldn't see me.

The dark boy smiled a wicked crazy smile. "Do you want to know the best thing about sand Annabeth?" When I didn't answer, he continued on, "when things move across it, most of the time, they leave imprints."

The implications of his words smacked me around the side of the head. I felt like that dumb blonde stereo type. Carter didn't need to see _me. _He could see my footprints in the sand. And fire erupted in my mind.

Carter set the flail ablaze and swung the weapon in a wide arch to smash into my head. I raised my shield to intercept the three pronged strike. Against a _khopesh _or maybe even the crook my defense would likely have been sufficient. But the flail was made up of three chains and while two were blocked, one slipped under my guard. And in the backlash, the inferno chain griped onto the back of my shield exactly where the crook had earlier made a crack. I flew through the air until the power became too much for my circlet of bronze and the disc exploded. I lost myself in pain for a few moments but when I stood, I found that I had Carter in front of me and the raging River Nile to my back. I also discovered that my left arm was a bloody mangled mess and since I could not feel it, my appendage was either dislocated or broken, neither of which was good.

Carter grinned cruelly at my injury. "Well that looks like it hurt."

"Go to hell."

"Done that."

"So have I."

"Well then, allow me to return you there" he remarked, stroking the crook like it were some cat. "Goodbye Annabeth. I will not miss you." Carter brought the weapons of the pharaoh back for one final attack.

Suddenly, a torpedo of water erupted from the behind me from the Nile and pile drivers Carter back three yards. The riptide then curled in and whipped me into the river. I was so exhausted, I didn't fight back. The last thing I registered consciously, was a soft kiss on the lips and the sight of a familiar black haired, green eyed gorgeous face. "Seaweed Brain" I muttered wistfully, as we sped along the tide.

**So, so sorry for how late this chapter is. I just couldn't make myself sit down.**

**Anyway, we are nearing the end of this story, maybe one or two more chapters, so REVIEW.**


	10. Chapter 10

Strike at Red Sands

Chapter 10

Aftermath

Jason's POV

The diversion against the First Nome had gone well. We suffered few losses and scouted out the House's defenses. I had ended up in a heated duel with Zia while Leo incinerated Walt's undead legions. Eventually, the enemy emplacements threatened to destroy the fleet, so we called a retreat to Alexandria. At the time, my spirits were high and my hopes higher as I believed that we were about to be rejoined by several great demigods, including Nico (our best spy who had gotten caught when Sadie's security improvements to the First Nome proved more uncanny than he had expected), Drew (who was unfortunately quite competent when it came to infiltration), and with a little luck, Percy. When the survivors of the raid returned, I could not have felt worse.

The news was horrific. Reyna, her crew, and almost all the prisoners were dead. Frank was close to joining them when the Apollo medics started patching him up. Annabeth's arm was ripped to shreds. She would be able to keep the appendage but it would take months to heal completely.

And then there was Percy. On the outside, it seemed that captivity had been good for him. But Will Solace, head of Camp Half-Blood's Apollo Cabin, wanted to examine him to make sure everything was alright on the inside. According to Hazel's account of his short battle with Sadie,

the _ha-di _spell literally shattered upon being declared against him. Percy sure as hell didn't have that kind of magical resistance before his disappearance, as his tenure as a guinea pig demonstrated. Not to mention his lack of knowledge that six months had gone by. Actually, he has dealt with that before.

At the moment however, I was outside a heartbroken friend's room, having trouble deciding whether or not I would be helping by trying to comfort him. In the end, I knew that he would do the same for me and I opened the door with the metal dragon head on the front.

Leo's room was similar to the Hephaestus Cabin back at Camp Half-Blood, with tools and half finished projects scattered across multiple work tables. Normally when I walked in, I saw Leo hard at work pounding out some new invention or top quality shield. Now, he was sitting on the side of his bed with his head hanging down, his magic tool belt thrown on his covers along with grease coated mechanic gloves. "Go away Jason" he demanded without even looking at me.

"If I had just lost my girlfriend and was acting like you, would you not try to help me just because I asked?" I countered.

When I had come up with that line before I entered the room, I had expected Leo to get mad or punch me, or something. Instead, he said glumly "You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't what?"

"Lose Piper, what do you think I mean Jason" He screamed, showing some of the fire I had expected earlier. "I'm the punching bag, the guy who will always have no one. Percy has Annabeth. You have Piper. Frank and Hazel have each other. Who do I have left? No one! Because everyone I love always dies or doesn't give a shit about me."

When had finished his rant, I thought about countering what he had said but I couldn't. Leo's mother had been murdered by Gaea. Hazel had chosen Frank over him. He had finally found some happiness with Reyna and she was dead too. "I'll just go then" I stated softly and I followed swiftly.

I thought I could not feel any worse than I already did when I exited but as soon as I shut the door, three old women appeared before me, with knitting supplies in their grasps. One look was all I needed to know that they were The Fates. The center woman held up a string of purple yarn that was literally holding together by a thread.

"_Your thread is thinning, Jason Grace" _the three woman foreshadowed to me with a direct thought. I blinked in astonishment, trying to discern what had transpired, but that blink was all the time they needed to disappear and leave me frozen on a pitch black ship.

Carter's POV

I sat on my throne in the Hall of Ages with the crook and flail crossed on my lap. Below me, highlighted by the violet hues of the new Age of War, Felix and Sadie sat back to back while Jaz had a hand on the back of each of their heads, chanting a complex spell. At the moment the magic was allowing Jaz to look into both their memories and compare two in particular. We needed to know who this new demigod was. And based on his abilities, it was likely that the new player was Percy Jackson, the damn fool who started this mess of a war.

A few moments past before Jaz removed her palms from Felix and Sadie's craniums and stepped back a couple of paces so that the other two could stand. "Well?" I inquired.

Jaz took a series of uneasy breaths. She was already exhausted from the defense of the Nome and the subsequent healing of others. I was taking a huge gamble on her safety by having her perform this ritual and inside I only placated myself that this information was too important to lose. "The two demigods are defiantly the same" she confirmed. "But"-

"But, what?" I snapped.

"Carter, the difference in his power between the two instances was enormous" she explained. "When he nearly killed Felix and Julian, his abilities were on par with your natural strength. But against Sadie, he wasn't normal. He had been augmented and not by demigods. The enchantment that broke Sadie's _ha-di _attack was Egyptian in origin and very powerful. Even with the crook and flail, I'm not sure you can beat him, especially if he has backup."

I took a couple of moments to digest what I had just been told. We had a traitor among our ranks or someone had split with the House before the war and had refused the emergency summons. Of course, as far as I knew, there were none who fit the second option. As the war had entered our most desperate hour, I had offered pardons to any magician convicted of a crime provided they fight for the House in the war. Because of this incredible offer, we had bolstered our forces by fifty percent and the Three Hundredth and Sixtieth Nome in Antarctica had been emptied.

But to the more immediate problem, the half-bloods now had a nearly unstoppable super soldier who controlled water and was immune to divine words. Why he was in Zia's old tomb, I didn't know. But he needed to die. More importantly, this war needed to end.

A solution suddenly leapt into my mind as I retreated to my chambers and wrote a letter to a man named Percy Jackson.

Evil Mastermind's POV

No, no no!

I was so close. Jackson's body had been augmented to my specifications and I had the shadows for the mass execration. The portal to the necessary location was waiting to be used. The war between the demigods and those miserable Kane brats had finally built up enough energy to power my spell. Everything was ready, except I couldn't cast the damn curses without a damn body!

Quickly I regained my composure. Jackson was out of reach for now, the pesky enchantments on the flying triremes kept me from going aboard. But eventually he would go to the First Nome, either to somehow negotiate peace or to rip out Carter's throat. Either way, all I needed to do was lie in wait for my little puppet to arrive and take what I needed.

So I scooped up my modified copy of the Book of Thoth and took to the skies on route to the First Nome. Yes, the world would bow to me. And no half-blood, magician, or damn god would stand in my way. This swears Setne.

**Tada, the villain is revealed at last.**

**So ends Strike at Red Sands, but don't worry Percbeth fans.**

**The next story (have not decided on name yet) will open with a Percbeth scene.**

**So until then, REVIEW!**


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